A conventional sample processing apparatus includes a plurality of sample processing units and a display device connected to the sample processing units (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-38889).
More specifically, the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-38889 discloses an automatic analysis apparatus provided with two analyzers and a display device configured to display an operation screen of the analyzers. The automatic analysis apparatus displays on the display device, for example, a screen showing a list/summary table of measured data as an operation screen of the two analyzers, which is shared by the two analyzers. When a maintenance screen of the analyzers is displayed in the automatic analysis apparatus, a window frame of the display device is divided into two display regions. A maintenance screen of one of the analyzers is displayed on one of the display regions, while a maintenance screen of the other analyzer is displayed on the other display region. A photometer check button, for example, is displayed on the maintenance screen, and when a user selects the photometer check button, a photometer check can be carried out as a maintenance operation of the analyzer.
In the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-38889, however, the maintenance screens for the two analyzers cannot be displayed on the display device while the list/summary table screen shared by the two analyzers is being displayed. This demands the user to cancel the currently displayed list/summary table screen before displaying the maintenance screens of the analyzers when he wants to carry out the maintenance of the analyzers while the list/summary table screen is still displayed, which is rather troublesome for the user.